9 June 2021
One of the few industries that won’t remember 2020 with tears in their eyes is the web and mobile development. The crisis only teased the IT community and left us with many interesting solutions.
As with all previous years, the main web app development trend in 2021 is a simplification. This year, your web app must be these three things:
- Easy
- Speedy
- Eye candy.
If this is not the case, you risk giving way to more technologically advanced competitors and losing the battle for user loyalty.
Let’s see what gear you should give a serious look at if you plan to build a web app this year.
1. Single page app (SPA): a tiny one that can carry it all
SPA is exactly what it says on the tin: an app that is technically just one page. SPA is like a normal web app that works inside a browser, but with one serious perk: it loads all javascript files (modules, widgets, controls, etc.), as well as CSS files along with loading the page itself.
SPA does not require page reloading: the content may change, but the page doesn’t since it only loads upon the very first request.
Pros
- SPAs work equally well on mobile devices and on desktops, which can help a developer cover a wider audience;
- Since there’s only one page, it’s much easier to build a complex user interface. It’s also easier to store session information, manage views and animation;
- Instead, the user enjoys a smooth, uninterrupted scrolling and natural environment.
Cons
- If you don’t code in JavaScript, you’ll have to learn how.
SPA examples: Google Maps, Twitter, and Google Drive.
Tech stack: React.js, Angular.js, Vue.js, Meteor.
2. PWA (Progressive web app): just like a native app, but simpler
PWA is a web tool that pretends to be a normal app. This technology installs your website onto a user’s smartphone as if it was a native app. In this case, the browser becomes a virtual machine that stores and runs the PWA—just what Android does for Android apps.
PWAs drive a completely mobile-ish user experience while being lighter, faster to download, and easier to develop.
Pros
- PWAs can work with poor or no Internet connection;
- Cost reduction by up to 70% as compared to native apps;
- No need to go for app store licensing and, consequently, the ability to avoid some of the App Store and Google Play limitations;
- Fast data exchange over the network, smooth and responsive UI;
- You can learn PWA technologies and apply them in your current projects gradually, without global remodeling and refactoring.
Cons
- It might be problematic to send push notifications to iPhones since the Safari browser is set by default;
- PWAs don’t support Touch ID and have Bluetooth limitations.
PWA Examples: Pinterest, Forbes, The Washington Post, Starbucks.
Tech stack
Service Worker, Push Notifications, HTTPS, App Shell, Web App manifest.
3. AMP (Accelerated Mobile Page): Google’s favorite frisky apps
As the name suggests, AMP is a technology that aims to create apps with speedy performance. AMP is an open-source library that was developed by Google to speed up page loading and display websites on mobile devices.
The secret to speed is that AMP uses a limited set of CSS, HTML, and JavaScript. Such pages only store the main content while sacrificing many elements (mainly visual images and dynamic content) for high download speeds.
The user of 2021 is not the user of 2011 — they won’t tolerate long page loading. With AMP, you can create fast and furious e-commerce, news, and other types of light web pages that load in a split second.
Pros
- AMP apps work great even for users with a slow internet connection.
- AMP pages have a much higher chance of getting to the top search engine positions because they take loading speed into account when ranking.
Cons
- The gets a little visually uglier;
- Videos and images load slowly;
- Limited widgets and features due to a limited set of CSS, HTML, and JavaScript;
- A regular text editor is no longer enough to place the text on the page;
- You need to have development skills to build an AMP version of a page
AMP examples: the technology is massively adopted by online publishers, such as The New York Times, The Verge, CNBC, etc.
4. Animation: extra glam that entertains, guides, and converts
Statics give way to dynamics in the race for user attention in 2021. Many businesses animate their apps and choose to work with Motion UI to save resources. Motion UI is a library that isn’t hard to wrap one’s head around, and that helps spice up apps with vivid animations, transitions, and graphics.
Animation is a great way to highlight important blocks and boost overall usability.
Pros
- No need to hire a motion designer. The Motion UI library includes a CSS file with ready-made effects, as well as files that allow creating custom animations;
- This technology is easy to grasp in case you have basic knowledge of CSS and JavaScript;
- Flexibility: Motion UI allows setting various parameters to make animations do exactly what you want them to;
- Animations dramatically increase user engagement. Aside from looking pretty, they help with navigation and hold the user’s quickly elusive interest.
Cons
- If not appropriately implemented, animations might clutter the interface, cause rendering issues, and affect loading speed.
Look how simple animations can make a routine in-app action unboring and fun:
5. MEAN stack: a powerful combo to handle any kind of complexity
MEAN stands for MongoDB, Express.js, Angular.js, and Node.js. It’s an end-to-end JavaScript stack mainly used to create cloud-hosted applications. Basically, it’s a document database, a Node.js web framework, a client-side JavaScript framework, and a web server packed in the same box.
MEAN is perfect for real-time apps: workflow managers, news aggregators, to-do list apps, etc.
Pros
- MEAN allows building scalable apps with a massive data flow. No matter how many users and content is being added up — a MEAN-based app can handle it all;
- Each of the four pieces of the stack uses a single language. Thanks to that, you can allocate a pool of JavaScript devs for your project and make them work adaptively instead of hiring four different specialists.
- The stack includes its own web server, which makes deployment a piece of cake.
Cons
- Requires experienced JavaScript experts.
Examples of apps built with the means of the MEAN stack: Dropbox, Netflix, Instagram, and Facebook.
6. Chatbots
Among all the web app development trends of 2021, chatbots are probably the least new. These days, even your local pet store website may have a chatbot. This solution is gaining momentum for a reason: most clients ask the same questions, and it’s weird to make a human sit there and answer them when a robot can do it.
It’s much easier to invest in getting a chatbot once to save thousands of man-hours for years to come. Combined with AI solutions, chatbots can fully automatize communication on a human-like level.
Pros
- Instant customer service: people don’t need to wait in line to get a simple question answered;
- Chatbots can be used for a whole bunch of purposes, not only for chatting with clients. For example, a bot can notify pizza delivery service workers of new orders, advertise your products, etc.
Cons
- Basic bots can process only a limited amount of queries. Those that can process the complex ones and imitate human speech are hard to set up and might be expensive;
- Chatbots don’t work for everyone. Businesses that focus on a personal approach would rather lose from having a chatbot than win. On top of that, many people find them irritating.
Some nice chatbot usage examples
Tech stack
The technology behind your future chatbot will depend on its complexity. Traditionally, there are three possible solutions:
- Messenger bots. Many mainstream messengers like Facebook and Telegram have chatbot functionality, and you don’t need a lot of money and a degree in web development to configure them. Choose a messenger bot depending on the platform that your clients tend to use more.
- Chatbot development platforms like Chatfuel, Botsify, and Motion.ai. Basically, these are constructors: you can pick the necessary elements and combine them to meet your needs. However, platforms don’t allow you to create your own components in case you need something special.
- Frameworks like Wit.AI, Microsoft Bot Framework, BotKit, and IBM Watson. If you fancy voice search, machine learning, and other things beyond mediocre, frameworks are your choice. The major drawback is their complexity — you’ll have to hire skilled developers for this job.
Bottom Line
Trends come and go, but one thing never goes out of style: user-friendliness. All the trends that we have collected here are old technologies that are revealed in a new way for new challenges.
Remember that the same problem can be solved in different ways. A professional team will help you choose the most suitable one based on your tasks.
If your business needs an app, the Rocketech team is here to help. We do analytics, design, branding, and, of course, development. We also have an impressive portfolio for all types of projects: from basic delivery apps to complex work managers.